Films that did the best and worst jobs of predicting the future

Yeah OK, so we don’t have hoverboards, at least not like they do in this film version of 2015. And maybe pizza isn’t cooked like it is in “Back to the Future Part II.” However, it isn’t that implausible of a future. There are excessive movie sequels, video phones and also the Cubs winning the World Series! In fact, they were only one year off on the Cubbies finally winning it all.

We could have also gone with “The Terminator,” but we hear, and see, a lot more about the bleak future facing humanity in “Judgment Day.” After all, humanity is ravaged in a nuclear disaster caused by Skynet in the far-flung future of…1997. Last we checked, the machines had not risen, and humanity had not been obliterated by nuclear weapons 20 years after Judgment Day.

Stanley Kubrick was famously so panicked that real-life technological advancements would surpass his film before he could get it out, he tried to take out insurance against that. He didn’t have to worry. Sure, no astronauts have turned into star children yet, but “2001” is one of the more plausible sci-fi films of recent vintage. In fact, Kubrick’s work was so good that it led to the long-standing rumors he filmed the “fake” moon landing of 1969.

We do have fancy billboards. We don’t have replicants or off-world colonies though. Also, it doesn’t rain in Los Angeles every second of every day. We’ll check 30 years down the line in “Blade Runner 2049.”

OK, we’re already to the part of this list where we have to stretch the definition of “good” predictions. Yes, Rollerball doesn’t exist. But in the 1975 James Caan-starring sports vehicle, the world of 2018 is a corporate dictatorship. Books have been replaced by digital summaries of the originals. Every house has multiple TV screens. Some of this future feels on the money — just not the murderous sport part.

We’re not to the far-flung future of 2035 yet, so we can’t speak to those parts of the film. Also, we’re guessing Terry Gilliam didn’t think his future was necessarily going to come true. After all, a movie that came out in 1995 indicates that a deadly virus will wipe out almost all of humanity in 1996. Either Gilliam was feeling cynical, or he just wanted to give contemporary audiences a bit of a scare.

Yes, we’re including a movie starring Pamela Anderson in our “good” section. It’s probably the only time “Barb Wire” and “good” will be used in the same conversation. “Barb Wire” takes place during the second American Civil War which takes place in…2017. All right, so we didn’t have a civil war, but you can’t say things didn’t become quite divided in this country right around that time.

Blame the Mayans for this one. “2012” is based on the long-standing myth that the Mayan calendar ended with the year 2012, meaning it was predicting the end of the world. This middling action flick took that to its logical conclusion, depicting an apocalypse actually taking place in 2012. Swing and a miss, John Cusack!

This one is here for one specific reason. Obviously Will Smith isn’t the only human left alive, and there aren’t any vampire mutants running around. However, “I Am Legend” did surprisingly nail one thing. In the background you can see an ad for a movie featuring Batman and Superman. “I Am Legend” came out in 2007, while “Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice” didn’t come out until 2016.

In this film, it is noted that the crime rate has increased by 400 percent by 1988. This leads to Manhattan being turned into a prison island, which is still the case when the film is set in 1997. And yet in real life, the crime rate peaked in 1981 and was 20 percent lower by 1997. So yeah, no prison island.

James Cameron is obsessed with underwater exploration. This movie takes place in 1994, but it really isn’t all that futuristic. There are aliens involved, but that’s not really about future tech. It’s just pure sci-fi. “The Abyss” keeps it simple, and for that it qualifies as being a decent vision of the future for the time.

“Waterworld” takes place around 2500, so sadly we won’t be around to talk trash about how much it got wrong. At least there’s Kevin Costner’s other post-apocalyptic film, “The Postman.” It was a huge box office flop, costing $80 million and grossing $20.8 million. Also, for purposes of this piece, what matters is that the post-apocalyptic world of the movie exists in 2013.

We don’t have “scramble suits” like in this film, or the drug Substance D, but some of the other stuff has proved true, in particular, the pervasiveness of technology in our lives. Richard Linklater’s movie involved a high-tech security system, which is something that is increasingly true in our world.

We do not have time travel. We did not have time travel in 2004 either. Two Ron Silvers have never met and then collapsed into one writhing mass and disappeared. So, you know, a lot of swings and misses for “Timecop.” We tried to avoid too many time-travel movies, but this was a fun one to use as a representative.

You may have not heard of this movie and not just because it was released as “Transatlantic Tunnel” in the United States. The film is about an attempt to build an underwater tunnel from England to the United States. That hasn’t happened. However, there is also a passing mention of a “Channel Tunnel.” An actual tunnel across the English Channel, aka the Chunnel, was eventually built. The movie got the timeline off a bit, but for a movie from the ‘30s, that's impressive.

As T.S. Eliot never said, “This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang, but with a weird psychedelic freakout.” That’s the case in this incredibly weird musical that somehow combines a riff on Adam and Eve with the Rapture. Talk about smashing all of history together in one film! Oh, by the way, the Rapture, which is led by “Mr. Topps,” takes place in 1994. This movie is awful in a truly amazing way.

As we dig around looking for movies set in futures past, we arrive at “Westworld.” Sure, we didn’t really have androids by 1983. However, we have some pretty advanced robots these days. Plus, the androids in “Westworld” the movie weren’t as advanced as they are in the current HBO show. We haven’t seen anything like those androids, but the old movie version ones are a little more plausible.

Why do people keep imagining that vampires are going to rise up? Zombies? Sure, why not! Vampires, though? Get real! “Daybreakers” takes place in 2019. Vampires did not become the dominant species and start taking out humans.

How, you may ask, is a Roger Corman exploitation flick about a literal death race in any way, shape or form a realistic depiction of the future? Well, it predicts an economic collapse in the United States in 1979. That year there was a major oil crisis. Then there was a recession in the early ‘80s. That’s kind of close. Look, this movie features Sylvester Stallone as a death race participant called Machine Gun Joe, and the hero is a woman who is a descendant of Thomas Paine named…Thomasina Paine. It’s just a goofy movie that we wanted to shout out.

Here’s another one set in 2019, so there’s still a chance for it to come true. Maybe human cloning will be perfected, and then clones will be kept on an isolated island where their organs are harvested for the people they are cloned from. It feels like it would be a stretch to get that all done in time, but you never know.